Bent WD snap up bracket on dual cam setup.
So on our way to Tennessee, I bent the drivers side WD snap up bracket for my Reese dual cam setup. I believe it was caused when we left a gas station that had a down hill to the road and then the ro...
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Well, on the other hand... The bracket is the weak link on your system and cheapest to replace, so do you want the bracket to be stronger than the trailer frame, or the hitch cradle, or the chains ???
As far as the dent the bolt put in your trailer frame I would not be too concerned about that, having not seen it of course. Steel is able to take one bend and still retain strength. I doubt this dent will ever matter, but as far as putting the new bracket where the dent is may or may not matter, as long as it is able to tighten and stay in place then you are good.
Of course when you turn one chain/spring is tight and the other is loose. However, if when level and straight one is still loose and you are not able to remedy with moving chain links up or down then you can get a bolt-on chain link (the name escapes me, but is the oval links you might attach the safety chains to the receiver hitch with) that is 1 1/2 times longer than the chain link on your WD bars. This will give you ability to fine tune the tension so instead of making 1 link adjustments you can make half-link adjustments.
Simply link chain link #3 to link #5, skipping 4 and this will add a half link length to the system. Do this ONLY on one side. This might be enough to even out the tension on the bars.
Make sure the link you are adding in is strong enough, so just get a big fat one.
You can test the tension by hooking it up one or two links looser so you can feel with hand and see if the two are equal tension, as under full load it will be so tight you cannot tell. Or lift one bar up, measure the height gain. lower, lift the other side up, measure, compare...
The way to avoid the issue is to drive across those driveway dips at an angle such that you are not making such a sharp up/down bend between the angle of truck and trailer.
OR take WD bars off.
What is happening is that when you make such an angle that the bars are pulling the tongue up such that the rear wheels of the truck are getting unweighted (headed to the truck rear wheels coming off the ground) and the weight is transferred across the bars to the trailer frame (and the hitch on the truck side) and all that weight is on the trailer frame at the point the bracket is bolted on. Lots of stress to the trailer frame. I was always afraid mine would bend the trailer frame at the bracket so I removed the bars when I got to washed-out dirt roads.
For me, I finally gave up and put on air bags as the tongue weight was still within my limits. I like the bags way more.
Perhaps a combo of air bags and WD bars would work for you (or any truck suspension stiffening system u choose). Stiffer truck springs and a lesser tensioned WD bars so you do not need to rely so much on the bars. This would give you more wiggle room before the bars bent or broke something.
Used WDH for sale....
As far as the dent the bolt put in your trailer frame I would not be too concerned about that, having not seen it of course. Steel is able to take one bend and still retain strength. I doubt this dent will ever matter, but as far as putting the new bracket where the dent is may or may not matter, as long as it is able to tighten and stay in place then you are good.
Of course when you turn one chain/spring is tight and the other is loose. However, if when level and straight one is still loose and you are not able to remedy with moving chain links up or down then you can get a bolt-on chain link (the name escapes me, but is the oval links you might attach the safety chains to the receiver hitch with) that is 1 1/2 times longer than the chain link on your WD bars. This will give you ability to fine tune the tension so instead of making 1 link adjustments you can make half-link adjustments.
Simply link chain link #3 to link #5, skipping 4 and this will add a half link length to the system. Do this ONLY on one side. This might be enough to even out the tension on the bars.
Make sure the link you are adding in is strong enough, so just get a big fat one.
You can test the tension by hooking it up one or two links looser so you can feel with hand and see if the two are equal tension, as under full load it will be so tight you cannot tell. Or lift one bar up, measure the height gain. lower, lift the other side up, measure, compare...
The way to avoid the issue is to drive across those driveway dips at an angle such that you are not making such a sharp up/down bend between the angle of truck and trailer.
OR take WD bars off.
What is happening is that when you make such an angle that the bars are pulling the tongue up such that the rear wheels of the truck are getting unweighted (headed to the truck rear wheels coming off the ground) and the weight is transferred across the bars to the trailer frame (and the hitch on the truck side) and all that weight is on the trailer frame at the point the bracket is bolted on. Lots of stress to the trailer frame. I was always afraid mine would bend the trailer frame at the bracket so I removed the bars when I got to washed-out dirt roads.
For me, I finally gave up and put on air bags as the tongue weight was still within my limits. I like the bags way more.
Perhaps a combo of air bags and WD bars would work for you (or any truck suspension stiffening system u choose). Stiffer truck springs and a lesser tensioned WD bars so you do not need to rely so much on the bars. This would give you more wiggle room before the bars bent or broke something.
Used WDH for sale....
